


Ib: Another Visit

by TheRandomOtaku



Category: Ib (Video Game)
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Ending, F/M, Fluff, Horror, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Promised Reunion, Psychological Horror, Repressed Memories, Spoilers, True Ending
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-17
Updated: 2014-03-16
Packaged: 2017-12-12 03:02:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/806409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRandomOtaku/pseuds/TheRandomOtaku
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if it all happened again?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

_What if after the agreement to meet up outside the art gallery had been forgotten?_

_What if the both of them didn’t remember what they were going to do when they had set foot outdoors?_

_What if the two of them weren’t able to recall their terrifying journey either?_

_What if everything went back to how it all was, and everyone was normal?_

_What if…_

_What if it all happened again?_

In the late morning under a grey sky…a family of three was on their way to an art gallery they had visited many years ago…

“You have everything you need, correct?  
Oh, don’t forget about your handkerchief now! You know, the one Mother got you for your birthday… Do you even remember it, or what it looks like?  
Perhaps you can find it then put it back in your pocket to keep it safe and sound! Like you were supposed to do the first time…”


	2. The Real Gallery

“Oh my,” a female voice rang out gently before turning her head to her right. She observed as the young woman in her sight move her head to look over and up at her, the other’s long, dark brunette hair covering one of her red colored eyes. “It’s been a long time since you, your father, and mother have been here, right, Ib?” she asked gently, moving some of her light brunette hair behind her ear while her dark red irises shined with excitement. She then watched the teenaged girl give a quick jerk of the head as a response.

A man with short, dark brunette hair and blue-grey eyes chuckled at the two females. “It’ll be different though,” he pointed out before noticing he had caught the teenager’s attention. The young girl had an eyebrow raised and her head cocked slightly to the left. “Why, you ask?” he questioned. “Because Guertena created so many pieces that this gallery couldn't possibly hold and show every piece he’s made at once.”

The mother giggled. “Father’s right,” she announced before looking back at the building in front of them. “Although, something’s bound to be here that was here last time.” She frowned when the three of them were getting closer to the entrance of the gallery. Both Ib’s and her father’s expressions turned to ones of confusion when they noticed her appearance. “The nerve of some people,” she grumbled then turned her attention to the double door as she crossed her arms. “Where do they get the thought that it’s a grand thing to smoke next to doors?”

Ib, along with her father, moved their eyes to look in the area her mother had been eyeing and saw a tall man that had short, dull light purple hair with dark purple highlights on the top of his head. He wore a long, tattered, navy jacket along with a black shirt and dark wash skinny jeans. He was putting away his lighter as he took a long drag off the cigarette in his hand when the family of three came close. To the young girl, time seemed to slow down when she and her family walked past the seemingly giant male while he blew out his smoke to go inside. She noticed that he had looked at her from the corner of his eye from the corner of hers, but thought nothing of it and continued right along her way.

The father led his wife and daughter, once all three of them were through the doors, to the reception desk. He then got a weird look plastered on his face and raised an eyebrow while he stared at the elderly man who was sitting behind the desk intently. “…Excuse me?” he said in a questioning tone. All the old man did snore in response.

With a quiet sigh, the teenaged brunette turned around and leaned back on the desk as her father continued his attempts to wake up the sleeping gentleman. She smoothed down her red hoodie after she had fixed her black skate shoes then hooked her thumbs on the pockets of her light wash jean shorts as she looked around. It made her feel like the little girl who went there wearing her red shoes and skirt with a white, button up shirt and a large, ruffle scarf around her neck again, and that made her smile a small smile.

Just then the door to Ib's right opened and she turned to look due to an automatic reaction. Seeing the man from earlier enter into the building, she silently watched him as he walked up to her and her family. Many questions started to fill her head as she observed the tall male until her red eyes locked with his dull light purple ones. Her mind went blank, everything seeming as if time had slowed down once again, while they stared at one another as he passed by with his hands in his pants pockets and smelling like cigarette smoke. She continued to gaze at him even when he looked away and had his back towards the teenager.

It was only until she couldn't hear his footsteps that she felt herself come back to sensing everything else around her. Ib closed her red eyes and shook her head gently like she was trying to wake up. It was almost like she had been hypnotized and she had just come to. She decided that she was just having a moment and disregarded it even though she was curious as to why she was so drawn to him…

She turned her head to look at her mother and father and noticed that he was still attempting to wake the old geezer up from his rest. This amused her slightly, but she wanted to go see the exhibits and possibly see the man again. She gently nudged her mother’s arm with her elbow and looked up at her.

“Hm…? What is it, Ib?” she asked after turning to look at her child before having a frown form upon her expression again. “What…? You wanna go on ahead?” Her mother took note of the nod her daughter gave to her as a response. “You went ahead last time and got lost.”

“Babe,” Ib's father interrupted, “she was younger then. She’s older and a little bit wiser now.” He turned back to the snow white haired old man. “Excuse me, sir…”

The older female of the two was silent for a long moment before letting out a loud and heavy sigh. “Fine, go ahead,” she said. “Just don’t bother anyone and don’t touch anything.” The mother caught the weird facial expression her teenager was giving her. “I know, I know,” she exclaimed in a laugh. “Go and we’ll see you when we catch up.”

With a wave and a small smile, the girl pushed herself away from the desk and walked straight ahead to the showroom that held the most famous piece of artwork by Guertena: Abyss of the Deep.

“Makes me want to dive right in,” she heard a man say softly in a low voice when she walked up to the velvet rope dividers. The painting really did make one have the desire to touch it and dive in. Of course, whoever decided to do such a thing would need their hip waders due to the amount of shit they would be in.

She shifted her stance to be able to see the plaque placed in front of the illustration. “Abyss of the Deep: ‘ ** _A world where man will never stand... To realize that world, I decided that I would engrave it on a canvas_**.’”

Ib turned her head to her left when she heard a woman exclaim, “Aw, this picture is so sad!”

The teenaged girl then went over and stood next to the short woman, looking down at her. “Come again?” she heard the lady ask after she looked at her. “Oh, what’s the name of this piece? It’s A Malevolent Paradise.” Watching the other female, the teen noticed the look of sorrow in the other’s eyes. “It speaks of a love triangle,” she stated. “Obviously, you can tell that the couple here is in love, but there’s someone off in the distance giving the couple a longing look as if they love one of the people there.” The brown haired teenager gave the woman a nod to show she was paying attention. “Well…I guess you could think of it as being friend zoned, in a way…”

She stood next to the short lady a little bit longer. She could remember how the painting had been A Well-Meaning Hell when she was little. She then turned around and headed straight down the hallway before her; the feeling of being little again making her excited and happy about the visit.

An abrupt “ooh” filled the air when she arrived in the section. “It looks like the pretty, red rose could break at any moment!” a little boy exclaimed to his mother.

While she walked up next to the mother, she read the plaque on the wall. “Embodiment of Spirit: ‘ ** _Beautiful at a glance, but if you get too close, it will induce pain. It can only blossom in wholesome bodies_**.’”

Wondering why the rose statue and its quote made her overcome with sadness, the young brunette turned around again and went straight ahead once more. She played with a handmade blue rose pin that was stuck in her hoodie and passed many spots where pictures had been replaced. The Coughing Man had been substituted by The Sneezing Woman while Selfless Guard was traded for Selfish Lookout, which was a pig with its back turned away while shoving food in its face, and The Sky Seen from a Hill for The Hill Seen from the Sky; the latter was just a reverse from the previously mentioned. When she rounded the corner, she also noticed the glass showcases, which used to hold Twinkling of Crystals and Stars, had inside them had a different object.

Both of them had different names as well. On the left was something called Star Crystal Dust, which was some kind of grey looking dust in the shape of a crystal, and didn't catch the eye well. The right was much prettier, in the teenager’s opinion, and they held something called Crystal Star Dust; a sparkly appearing dust in the shape of a star.

She wondered why the gallery needed four gigantic showcases for four little creations, but was soon distracted by the other paintings on the wall ahead of her. It didn't surprise her that the images there too had been swapped. Serpent’s Spirit was now Comrade’s Soul, a painting with random abstract shapes, and Ib had a small frown that appeared. She had actually liked the previous even though she didn't understand it. It was pretty at least with its bright colors, unlike Comrade’s Soul that had dark navy and dark grey as its hues.

“I am _truly_ impressed,” the young brunette heard an older man to her left breathe as she walked up next to and observed him after taking note of  Glass of Antipodes’ replacement, which was named Cup of Similarities. It was an image with black on left side with a white circle pattern getting smaller while the right side was the exact opposite. “Guertena doesn't fail to amaze…” Ib then heard the man let out a rather feminine yelp when he received her small voice in his own ear before he cleared his throat and tugged lightly on his orange sweater while he looked at her. “I-I’m sorry, you gave me a fright,” he explained to her. “You asked what the name of this piece right here is, correct?”

The older gentleman smiled gently at her when she nodded. “Well, young lady, this here is called Vertical Sight,” he told her. “It resides in the spot where Horizon View used to be.” He then looked over at the painting curiously as he listened to the brunette teenager. “Interesting point,” he agreed. “It _does_ appear as if the organisms in the picture should be sideways… Wonder if this’s the wrong one…” He didn't even notice when the girl left him alone.

Ib almost completely ignored Forest Enclosure, which took Beach Isolation’s place and was just the forest bottom with the tree trunks and their bottom branches as she scurried off. It was odd to her when she arrived back to the area where Abyss of the Deep was being shown that barely anyone had moved whatsoever. It was as if they were automatons that were overly humanlike with their appearances.

A familiar voice suddenly filled the air. “Sir, excuse me!” the teenager overheard her father almost shout when she entered the lobby. She shook her head and climbed the stairs. She couldn't believe her father was still trying to wake the older gentleman and that he hadn't gotten someone else to help him or reported the senior citizen.

Her red eyes scanned the second level of the museum with high interest. She was curious as to how many exhibits had been changed, if any at all. The upper floor, from what she could remember, was her favorite part of the museum. Though she couldn't remember why for the life of her of _why_ it was…

The statues were the same to her disappointment, but the paintings were not. Instead of Lady Taking the Newspaper it was Man Reading the Newspaper next to another new image, but Ib couldn't tell what it was. She could only tell that it was violent due to the sharp point and the small amount of blood she could see around the man she had seen outside.

Walking up behind the mysterious man, she finally built up the courage to call out to him. She wanted to hear him speak, for some odd reason that she was unsure of, and tell her what the painting they were standing in front of was since she couldn't see around him. There was something about him and she _still_ couldn't put her finger on it, yet it was at the tip of her tongue. Why did she seem to know this man?

Ib called out to the tall male, attempting to get his attention. It wasn’t too long after trying to get his attention three different times that her eyebrows knitted into the beginning of a frown. She checked his ears and his upper chest to see if he happened to have ear buds in his ears that inhibited him from hearing her smooth, young voice, and her scowl became more evident when she didn’t see a cord or anything of the like.

With a gentle huff, the teenager turned her back to the wall and stared at the statues before her. They hadn’t changed, Death of the Individual and Reserved Seat, so she didn’t bother to go down and check them out, but instead continued on to her left after paying attention to Style Fortification, a stone wall behind a ravine, which was in Couplet Towers spot. She did, however, hear a couple of people who were standing at the pieces of art breathe their words in awe.

“No matter whom you are or how you look at it, these figures are _amazing_ …”

“I wish I could sit on that beautiful sofa…”

The next portrait was a woman hugging a heart with a heartfelt smile, properly named Comfort, and Ib couldn’t suppress the small half smile that pulled on her lips. It was nice and very warming, in her eyes, as well as being better than the Worry painting. Then again, that was her hopeless romantic side coming through with a tiny mixture of her hormones… Stupid overactive, teenager hormones…

Let’s see here, the teenaged female thought before pausing in front of next picture that was after Rough Jewel, Misshapen Jewel’s trade out, which was a ruby stuck in a rock. The Man In Navy, huh…?

Suddenly images of the man coming to life flashed through her mind. He jumped off the wall, making him able to crawl/drag himself towards her and he wasn’t a slowpoke either. Then he began to flicker back and forth between being The Man In Navy and a woman dressed in red…

A hand flew to her left eye after she roughly shook her head, and she began to rub it along with the left side of her face. What was with that thought? Where did it come from, and why would she have it?

Why did he turn into The Lady In Red painting, she wondered before deciding to ignore it.

Persisting on, the girl kept seeing even more replacements:  
Bitter Fruit was now a bowl filled with candy called Sour Sweets...  
Spectacle of Century’s End had been replaced with Marvel of an Ending Era, which was a colorful festival…  
Unfortunately, the statues, Wariness, Taste-Cleansing Tree, and Fusion, were the same as before…  
Shadowy Image, a close up of a black, scruffy, almost doglike creature with red eyes, was on the wall instead of Your Dark Figure…  
…and a detailed, closed eye, titled Ignorance, resided in Enlightenment’s spot.

Passing Ignorance, she stumbled upon a large piece of wall that only had a single portrait hung on it. It didn’t even look all that good. She couldn’t understand why they would hang such a huge piece of art that appeared to have been made by some little kid. Honestly, she thought it would’ve been gone by now…

Ib leaned forward slightly, wondering what the name of the piece was called again. Her almost blood red eyes searched for the golden plaque with the name of it engraved within it. They finally caught it and only gave the words a glance before she fixed her focus on the actual picture itself.

“Fabricated World,” she breathed.

Hands flew up to her skull and weaved themselves through her brown hair with a grimace adorning her features while eyes clenched shut. Screams, odd choking noises, and growling filled the air around her while bringing pain to her head. Teeth clenched together and caught her lower lip in between them.

Why was this happening? Where had she heard these sounds before? On top of that, why were they familiar?

As soon as the pain and commotions had appeared, they disappeared before the female could think of anything else. With a sigh from her nose, the girl’s fingers untangled themselves from her locks before her hands dropped back down to her sides and after her teeth released her lip. What had that been all about?

Red eyes reopened before locking onto Fabricated World again. How could she possibly be attracted to such an image? What was it about it that made her want to continue to stare it? She didn’t understand anything that was happening to her at the moment, or even all together…

The lights then began to flicker, which lasted for a couple of minutes, before they went out…

Ib blinked and looked around almost as if she were in a daze. Why did the lights go out, and…where was everybody? The place had been packed, and now…no one.

Maybe there’s someone downstairs, she thought.

When she was done making her round of searching, she ended back up at the hideous painting after walking pass the image about a turned off fountain named Outside Still Life that was the replacement for Still Life On Table twice. She really was alone…except for whoever banged on the window when she came back up the stairs and scared her, but she didn’t want to think about that. Everything was weird as it was and she needed to keep her head on her shoulders by staying calm.

“I’d leave, but all the exits are locked,” she muttered.

She then gasped gently and took a step back from Fabricated World. From the corner of her eye, she had caught it dripping blue paint at the bottom of it. She watched in horror as it made itself into words…

“‘come down below ib ill show you someplace secret’”


End file.
